With its growing number of users, Second Life as one of the avatar-based 3D virtual worlds has received attention from educators and researchers in various fields to explore its pedagogical benefits. Given the increasing implementation of technologies broadly in much instruction, this study investigated how ESL students negotiated meanings in…

Tutoring systems provide students with various types of on-demand and context-sensitive hints. Students are required to consciously adapt their help-seeking behavior, proactively seek help in some situations, and solve problems independently without supports in other situations. We define the latter behavior as stoic behavior in hint seeking. In…

A highly interactive, integrated and multi-level simulator has been developed specifically to support both the teachers and the learners of modern computer technologies at undergraduate level. The simulator provides a highly visual and user configurable environment with many pedagogical features aimed at facilitating deep understanding of concepts…

This paper presents the basic features of a software system developed to support the teaching of digital logic, as well as the experience of using it in the Digital Logic course taught at the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia. The system has been used for several years, both by students for self-learning and…

While virtual technology for training in the simulation field has a long history in medicine, aviation, and the military, the application of similar emerging and innovative technologies in teacher preparation and education has been limited. TLE TeachLive™ (Teaching Learning Environment, Teaching in a Virtual Environment) [TLE] is an inventive…

The objective of this study is to elucidate new information on the possibility of leadership training through business computer-simulation gaming in a virtual working context. In the study, a business-simulation gaming session was organised for graduate students ("n"?=?26). The participants played the simulation game in virtual teams…

Schools everywhere are using robotics education to engage kids in applied science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities, but teaching programming can be challenging due to lack of resources. This article reports on using Robot Virtual Worlds (RVW) and curriculum available on the Internet to teach robot programming. It also…

The current study investigated the role of cultural norms on the development of face-scanning. British and Japanese adults' eye movements were recorded while they observed avatar faces moving their mouth, and then their eyes toward or away from the participants. British participants fixated more on the mouth, which contrasts with Japanese…

The FluAnisot educational software package is a fully contained tutorial on the technique of fluorescence anisotropy measurement as well as a simulator on which two experiments can be performed. The procedure for each of the experiments is also contained within the package along with example analyses of results that were obtained using the…

Studies have shown that standard lectures and instructional laboratory experiments are not effective at teaching interference and diffraction. In response, the author created an interactive computer program that simulates interference and diffraction effects using the finite difference time domain method. The software allows students to easily…

There is increasing use of computer-based resources to teach anatomy, although no study has compared computer-based learning to traditional. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of three formats of anatomy learning: (1) a virtual reality (VR) computer-based module, (2) a static computer-based module providing Key Views (KV), (3) a plastic…

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) simulation software has long been recognized as an effective educational tool, yet many of the existing HPLC simulators are either too expensive, outdated, or lack many important features necessary to make them widely useful for educational purposes. Here, a free, open-source HPLC simulator is…

Virtual worlds are well-suited for building virtual laboratories for educational purposes to complement hands-on physical laboratories. However, educators may face technical challenges because developing virtual worlds requires skills in programming and 3D design. Current virtual world building tools are developed for users who have programming…

The inclusion of three-dimensional (3D) virtual tools has created a need to communicate the engagement of 3D tools and specify learning gains that educators and the institutions, which are funding 3D tools, can expect. A review of literature demonstrates that specific models and theories for 3D Virtual Reality (VR) learning do not exist "per…

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the enabling role that agent based simulation plays in business and policy. The aforementioned issue has been addressed in this dissertation through three distinct, but related essays. The first essay is a literature review of different research applications of agent based simulation in various…